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The SMB AI Starter Toolkit

A practical, no-jargon guide for small business owners who want to start using AI this week. No technical background required. No expensive tools needed to begin.

Includes: the 10 highest-ROI automations for small businesses, a curated AI tools directory, and effort vs. impact ratings for every item.

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The 10 automations to start with

01

Automate your lead follow-up

Set up an automated response that goes out within 5 minutes of any new enquiry. Tools: Make.com or Zapier + any CRM.

Very high impactLow effort
02

Create a content brief template

Write one master prompt that generates your content briefs. Feed it a topic and get a full brief in 60 seconds.

High impactVery low effort
03

Set up an AI email drafting workflow

Use a prompt template for your most common outgoing email types: proposals, follow-ups, rejections. Cut drafting time by 70%.

High impactLow effort
04

Build a simple FAQ chatbot for your website

Train a basic chat widget on your top 20 customer questions. Reduces support volume and improves first-touch experience.

High impactMedium effort
05

Automate your weekly reporting

Connect your key metrics (sales, traffic, leads) to an AI that writes a plain-English weekly summary every Monday morning.

Medium impactMedium effort
06

Use AI for proposal and quote generation

Build a prompt template that turns a client intake form into a draft proposal. Review, adjust, and send in under 20 minutes.

Very high impactLow effort
07

Transcribe and summarise all your meetings

Use a transcription tool on every client or team call. Get a summary with action items in your inbox within 2 minutes of hanging up.

High impactVery low effort
08

Build a knowledge base your team can ask questions to

Upload your SOPs, FAQs, and process docs to a RAG (retrieval) tool. Staff find answers in seconds instead of asking you.

Very high impactMedium effort
09

Set up automated appointment reminders

Automate SMS and email reminders for all booked calls and appointments. Reduces no-shows by 40 to 60% for most businesses.

High impactVery low effort
10

Repurpose every long-form piece into 5 short ones

After every blog post, video, or podcast, run it through a repurposing prompt. Get captions, tweets, email snippets, and a short-form script automatically.

High impactVery low effort

AI tools directory

Curated and opinionated. These are tools that actually work for small businesses without requiring a developer to set up.

Writing and content

  • ChatGPT

    General writing, drafting, brainstorming

  • Claude

    Long-form writing, analysis, nuanced tone

  • Notion AI

    Writing inside your existing workspace

Automation and workflows

  • Make.com

    Connecting apps and automating multi-step workflows

  • Zapier

    Simple app integrations, beginner-friendly

  • n8n

    Advanced automation, self-hosted option available

Meeting and voice

  • Otter.ai

    Meeting transcription and summaries

  • Fireflies.ai

    CRM-connected meeting notes and action items

  • ElevenLabs

    Voice AI for customer-facing agents

Customer support

  • Intercom Fin

    AI support agent for websites

  • Tidio

    Affordable AI chatbot for small businesses

  • Crisp

    Free tier available, solid for early stage

Research and knowledge

  • Perplexity AI

    Real-time research with citations

  • NotebookLM

    Ask questions about your own documents

  • Mem.ai

    AI-powered note-taking and knowledge base

Social media and marketing

  • Buffer AI

    AI-assisted social scheduling and captions

  • Opus Clip

    Turn long videos into short clips automatically

  • Predis.ai

    AI social content from a single prompt

Want help actually implementing any of this?

The toolkit shows you what to build. We build it with you. Book a free call and we will identify the single highest-value automation for your specific business.

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